Friday, September 13, 2013

Determined to get as many kayaking days in before fall arrives,
my girlfriend and I wanted to head out to the beach tonight after work. We have had to cancel a few times these past
two weeks and we prayed the weather would hold up for us tonight. Last night, our area experienced one of the
worst storms this season and we weren’t sure what was in store for us tonight. I emailed Kathy early in the day and told her
that the weather report said winds were going to pick up tonight, we may not be
able to go out on the lake. We would
play it by ear.

Now, our usual practice is this: Kathy lives in the opposite direction as me
and gets home from work before I do, so on kayaking nights I drive home by the
lake and pull over to check out how calm the lake is and after texting Kathy to
let her know, I head back out on the road to get home. I’m 15 minutes from home at this point and
Kathy is 20 minutes from my place. Once
she gets the OK, she starts heading to my place with the kayaks and she arrives
just in time for me to be changed and standing on the porch waiting for her. This practice is an important time saver for
us, particularly at this time of the year as we are limited for our daylight
and every moment counts.

I was happy to see that the sun shone all afternoon and the
skies were clear and I was hopeful our day would end on a relaxing, happy note
out on the lake. That is, up until 10 minutes before I left
work. I noticed that the sky was getting
very gray and dismal to the south-west. I
left work and headed north towards the lake and within 3 minutes it started to
rain. I didn’t lose hope because ahead
of me the sky was clear, but it was still raining behind me. I got to the lake it was still raining
lightly but the wind picked up. And yet
the sky over the lake was clear. There were white caps on the lake near the
shoreline, but the water was only mildly choppy the rest of the way out. My text messages would not go through to
Kathy, so I just got back on the road to get home so I could get Kathy
called. This was going to set us back
another 20 minutes.

I arrived home to find that Kathy had been trying to reach
me because she had not heard back from me in half an hour and started to
worry. I called her back and here’s how the conversation went...

B: Well I don’t know,
what do you want to do? It’s your
call. Are you going to be upset if you drive all the way out there and we
find out we can’t go out?

K: No. I just want to get out and relax. I’ve had a rough week.

B: Ok, but I don’t think
we’ll be relaxing. It’s windy and it’s going
to be a work out. There won’t be much relaxing
and yaking ‘cause we won’t be able to hear each other talking.

K: Good point.

B: The only thing I’m
worried about is the shoreline. At the
Cove the water is deeper and where we go it’s shallow so are the whitecaps
going to be better or worse. Your call.

K: I’m exhausted.

B: Well then that
settles it. If you are THAT tired, then
you aren’t going to have the strength you need on the water anyway and you’ll
be whipped when you get home.

K: Or… the exercise
will do me good.

This bantering went on for awhile …

B: Ok, we are wasting
time and losing daylight. What do you want to do; it’s YOUR call.

K: Wellllll… It might
be rough.

B: Ok.

K: BUT, it might be FUN too!! Let’s go!

We arrive at the lake and the wind starts to pick up and the
sand was blowing over the ridge before we could see the water. We started to laugh and I said, this doesn’t
look good. Kathy quickly turned into the
parking area and said, it’s going to be cold – I’m going pee before we get out
there. I on the other hand was smart
enough to go before I left home because I hate using the outhouses. I didn’t have to pee. Or so I thought.

Heading back to the lake we get over the ridge, take one
look at the water and start laughing again.
“Oh shoot, I don’t think we are
going in that.” So to confirm: the
whitecaps were much bigger and stronger in the shallower part of the lake. We
hesitated. Should we go or should we
stay now ????

We got out, put our feet in the water and it was like bath
water. Tempting. Very tempting. We hesitate some more and finally decide – we’re
here, let’s try. We both brought windbreakers as we weren't sure what we were in for. Our plan: just stay near the shoreline and just bounce on the waves. No way we were going out any distance in that!

We dragged the kayaks into the water and quickly got in and within 10 seconds our jackets were completely soaked. Kathy was a little bit ahead of me so I was
watching her fight to get past the waves and I couldn’t even get past the
shoreline yet. I’m watching her swing
her paddle like crazy and getting absolutely NO WHERE; and I’m still trying to get past the waves
and I get pushed back up onto the sand and then I was stuck.
So I started to giggle and I started bucking back and forth thinking
that it was actually going to make a difference. I’m bucking and Kathy is swinging and for
every swing she took, she still went nowhere and for every buck I made, I just dug myself deeper in the sand.
And all I could think of was how much she looked like a bird frantically flapping its wings when flying against the
wind and going absolutely no where. (remember
when I said I didn’t have to pee… ya well… I laughed so hard I peed my pants
kayak)

It was so
ridiculously funny that even though I was grateful that there wasn’t a sole on
the beach to witness this, I still
wished it had all been captured on camera. I could not compose myself at all. She stopped paddling to look back at me
totally losing it, and a wave caught her and pushed her right back all the way to
the shoreline to get stuck in the sand right beside me.
Hysterically she cried out, “Great! Now we look like beached whales!”

We made a few more attempts and I said, “I’m getting the
camera and I’m going to video you paddling like a bird going nowhere.” (Unfortunately,
I cannot upload the video they are too big for the blog)

Kathy said, “Ok, your turn.
Let me get some shots of you”. As Kathy was filming me, my kayak turned and I was
suddenly parallel with the waves and you
know what that means. Yep. Ass over billy goat I went. Thank god I was only in half an inch of
water. I was laughing, but Kathy was worried I was hurt, but she didn’t rush to me right away because she didn’t want to get my camera wet. That's what friends are for. But the waves kept knocking the kayak into me
and she had to finally come and rescue me in the half inch of water and save me
from the beating. Thank god no one saw
that. OH wait! Shoot. Where did those four cars come from on the beach and why
are all those people laughing? Crap!

After about half an hour of fighting waves and peeing myself
we finally decided to pack up the kayaks. But we simply couldn’t leave before we
ventured out into the waves. The water was so warm we couldn’t resist. We
are so fortunate to have such a nice sandy beach and in this particular spot it
is shallow enough that you can play in the waves without worry of it dropping
off deep. We were only knee deep, but
you could feel the undertow. So we decided it was time to call it a night.

As we were leaving we noticed several people kite
sailing. One person ended up about 15
feet in the air. They certainly looked like they were having a blast.

The sky was such a beautiful colour peeking through the clouds tonight. What a great way to end the day and a great way to end the season.

Hopefully, we'll get some more Kay-yak-yak-yaking in before the end of September. Stay tuned for the adventures of feeding the seagulls from the kayaks.

Contributors

About Us

Hello and welcome! We're Jody, Tracey, Bonnie and Anita, and we're so glad you stopped by our blog for a visit!

Our love of stitching is what brought our group together 20 years ago, but what we truly cherish is the amazing friendship that the 4 of us share; a bond which continues to grow stronger as the years go by.

As you read our blog, you will see it has a little bit of everything - hence the name, More Than Just Cross Stitchin'. We hope you'll come back again soon!

Charlie Brown

Growing up, I had a pet monkey named Charlie Brown. Actually, he belonged to my sister and he came to live with us in 1966. You were actually allowed to have monkeys as pets then and if you can beleive it, he was ordered from an ad in the back of a magazine. Charlie Brown was a squirrel monkey (just like the ones in the Telus commericials).

Everyone in school loved when it was my turn for 'show and tell'. You will see in some of the photos (if the slide show downloads for me...) that he used to wear diapers. Eventually, he learned how to take them off. We had a rope strung across the kitchen from end to the other. We kept a piece of papertowel on the floor at the end of one rope and that's where he did his business. His rope provided many hours of entertainment. At bedtime, if mom and dad were not home when it was bedtime, he would sit on his roap and cry out until they returned.

If I was crying, Dad would put him up to my face to lick away my tears. He would dangle from my hair and lick from one eye to the next. It alwyays made me stop crying. He would play outside and every once in awhile he would swing from tree to tree and end up down the street at the neighbours.

Often you would find the monkey lying in the cast iron pan on the stove. The pilot light from the gas stove provided him a warm and comfy spot. He would also sit on top of the lamp shade for warmth, and if you ever heard a 'pop' - you knew he peed on the lightbulb. It happens...

Charlie Brown used to sit on the wall phone.... until it rang. That was always funny. He brought many years of amusement to us all and I miss him and his antics.

Bonnie

Welcome to Jody's

It's a Dishcloth!

No... It's 2 Perfect Ones!

Anita's Chicken

Anita created this from looking at a picture from a magazine. No pattern. THAT girl !!!

Tracey working away with her crochet hooks she bought when she was in Grade 7 along with a beginner book. Her determination to learn by herself at such a young age is admiring.

Here is one of Tracey's projects on the go.

Anita's handy work

Warm toes

Warm hearts ... and warm toes!

Well since we are talking winter, let's talk about warm hearts ... and warm toes.

A few years ago at Christmas we had a gift exchange. Ironically, both Anita and myself had the exact same idea for a present. We always open our gift bags at the same time, and it was really hard for me to keep a straight face when I saw that Anita had had the same gift idea as me and while she explained that she thought slippers would be a good idea, that way we could carry them in our bag with us at all times. Anita had knit slipppers for everyone and made a little draw-string pouch, with our names embroidered on it, to keep the socks in.

Then they all opened my gift bag and we burst out laughing. I knew how much everyone loved snowmen, so I had stitched faces on white slippers and added a carrot button for the nose. Well we weren't finished with the laughter because I thought we should get a picture with our slippers on. So then we were all sitting on the floor trying to get different positions in order to get everyone in the picture at the same time. We tried sitting up against the wall and taking the picture of our toes all pointing up to the ceiling and then I said, nooooo - that will show the snowman's face upside down. Someone said... (and I won't say who...) "Good point, let's think of something else. What if we lay on our back with our feet in the air - you know... like if our feet were ON the ceiling"

Well then the faces would still be upside down wouldn't they. Spontanious Laughter.

We had to think of something else. It was decided that we would just stand toe to toe in a huddle and we would take the picture from above in order to get everyone in the picture. Sounded like a good plan right?

Well... not if you have a protruding belly and/or big boobs. After the inital light-headedness subsided from sucking in our bellies, we had to deal with the shadow from the boobs.

So we stood in our huddle, adjusting, wiggling and laughing with our arms around each other while we tried not to tip over. It was about that moment when Anita's daughter walked in on us, which of course added to the laughter when we saw the look on her face.

Finally the photo was taken and our toes are doubly warm.

Bonnie

Where Does the Time Go?

Heatwave July 21, 2011

Anita's Lucky Charm

Winter Storm December 12, 2010

The storm didn't stop this Bloomin' Rose

Happy Birthday Dad

Dad was born on Armistice Day - November 11, 1918. Shown here with his favourite show off 'Charlie Brown' the monkey.

The Feathered Nest

Quite some time ago when I was perusing the Dollarama, I came across the cutest autumn tea towel with a teddy bear dressed up like a scarecrow. It immediately reminded me of Jody and I thought 'I'm going to get that for her', and then I thought... why not get one for everybody? And so I did and it was a hit.

From that point on, it's no surprise to any of us if there just happens to be an occasional 'mini gift' exchange on Cross Stitch night. Once when Jody hosted in February, she gave us all a tiny picture frame with a 1" x 1" opening. I had no idea what to do with mine, but Tracey knew immediately. Because it was Valentines day, Tracey stitched a heart.

Mine sat for a good number of months before I could figure out what I could stitch in such a tiny area and not copy Tracey's idea. And then one day it hit me; Jody loves snowmen. I would do a snowman in the frame that Jody gave me. But.... do they make snowman patterns for less than 1" x 1"? I couldn't be bothered looking, so I winged it. And voila! A happy smiley snowman face. I think it took longer to write this posting than it did to stitch that happy face.

We'll have to get a picture of Tracey's heart posted after her renovations are complete as I expect it's packed away for now.